BAY ROBERTS, N.L. — The 2020 Newfoundland and Labrador Summer Games in Bay Roberts will look a little different compared to previous editions, with the inclusion of some first-time events.
Municipal recreation director Ian Flynn provided updates about the event at the Tuesday, July 9 council meeting in Bay Roberts. He also introduced the recently-hired games manager, Janine Campbell.
"I'm just excited to be here and really excited to make this one the best games yet," said Campbell, whose parents are from Upper Island Cove and Spaniard's Bay. She was scheduled to start work July 16.
Campbell most recently managed the Greenbelt Tennis Club in St. John's and served as executive director for Tennis Newfoundland and Labrador. Prior to this, she worked for a number of years at the Canada Games Centre in Halifax as a co-ordinator.
Campbell will maintain an office at the Bay Arena in Bay Roberts. She was in the community Tuesday to meet with games committee co-chairs Neil Kearley and Judy Morrow.
In his update to council, Flynn outlined the sports to be included in the games, details of which were initially announced during last month's Light the Lamp ball hockey tournament. Current plans will see 11 sports featured. Two of those – cycling and triathlon – are new to the event.
"It's not something they introduce a whole lot of new sports to, so we're here now in 2020, first time hosting the games, and we're proudly hosting cycling and triathlon for the first time in the games," said Flynn. The last summer games he's aware of to introduce a new sport was when rugby was included in 1992; it did not return for the 1996 games.
"There's a lot of unanswered questions with those two sports, but from what we understand, the provincial sport governing organizations are very eager to work with the host town and the host committee and the games manager to ... make sure it happens in Bay Roberts," Flynn said.
While Bay Roberts will be the host site for the majority of sports, some events will be elsewhere in the Trinity-Conception region. Carbonear will host athletic events at its track and swimming at the local pool. Bay Roberts will still host artistic swimming at its own pool. Preliminary discussions have also taken place with the operators of the Pitcher's Pond Golf Course in Whiteway. Bay Roberts will jointly host baseball with the Town of Upper Island Cove.
As for athletes representing the host region, Flynn said that team will encompass youth from the Ascension and Carbonear Collegiate school systems.
"It was easier to pick it by school systems than by communities," he explained.
"One of the goals of the executive committee was to field competitive teams in the sports, and we felt that with a population of 6,000 people (in Bay Roberts), it would be very hard to pick teams with the limited number of athletes we'd have. That's why we expanded our host region."
With the games 13 months away, planning is ramping up. Flynn said a volunteer recruitment event will likely happen in the early fall. The other big event the host committee is looking at is a business luncheon for potential summer games sponsors.
"We'll present all levels or sponsorship, and if a business wants to be a sponsor at a certain level, then we'll cater a presentation directly to them personally," he said. "We've already had a number of businesses reach out and want to be sponsors in the area, some big-name businesses."
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2020 Newfoundland and Labrador Summer Games events
• Artistic swimming
• Athletics
• Ball hockey
• Baseball
• Cycling
• Golf
• Soccer
• Softball
• Swimming
• Tennis
• Triathlon
